We are always listening to your views and you come up with some really good ideas, which where possible we do implement.

We don’t often feed back to you to tell you why we do things the way we do or why we don’t do them for that matter.

We are frequently asked if you can book appointments online, simple yes?

Well actually no, there are 2 really good reasons why not at the moment.

First a few statistics – you may not realise how many appointments we actually do, maybe it doesnt look that busy? From Sept – end Dec there were 22,801 visits to the Careers Centre and we had 4226 appointments.

Supply and demand – demand for appointments is far greater than we can supply at peak times. We need to talk to you to work out if you need an appointment and what type you need (triage). About 50% of questions can be answered by the information team immediately so many students don’t even need to have an appointment.

Specialist advice – to give you the benefit of in-depth advice our careers consultants specialise in different career areas. By discussing your needs with you in some detail we hope to match you with the most effective person for your specific query.

So far we haven’t found an online system that can beat a quick chat for working that out!

Share this:

Like this:

Watch out for our semester 2 events – March is “Careers with a difference month”.

Semester 1 sees many of the big corporates recruiting and having events on campus, the “non – corporates” tend to recruit in less regular patturns so to give them a stronger presence each year we focus on them in semester 2.

Recently I’ve been talking to a lot of people about postgrad options. At the beginning of the year I decided that I would rather die then do an MA. I then started applying to a load of graduate jobs, decided that I really did not want to do any of them, then stared blankly and disheartened at the computer screen. Then an email came: “Have you considered doing an MA?” I read the email and decided that yes, maybe I should do an MA.

Worrying about finding a job? Did you know Recruitment Company REED surveyed over 1,000 businesses and found that 97% of employers would employ an applicant with a positive mind-set even if they were not as strong as other candidates in terms of skills and achievements. So when attending a job interview or event always ensure you convey positivity above all else.

Clearly we don’t always feel positive, especially in this socioeconomic climate. Global recession, inflation, increased tuition fees, public sector job cuts, soaring petrol prices all beg the question ‘What is there to be positive about?’ However the question you should be asking is ‘Why should I be positive?’ because the answer is a much more satisfying one.

Each year we hear from students who are invited to interview with some impressive big name companies, but miss out on their interview dates because they take too long to think about it.

Check your email and voice mail regularly, at least once a day.

If you are given a choice of times, locations or dates, book one immediately.

If you can’t make any of them ring the company immediately and tell them why not, but it better be a good excuse like an exam!

The slots will book up with other candidates who are sure about their commitment to this company very fast. It is possible they may invite more people than there are slots – there will always be some who don’t bother or have had a better offer.

So think carefully about your priorities:

Is playing football that afternoon worth giving up that job for?

Can you miss a lecture or tutorial? (It’s fairly likley that on balance you will be able to negociate something with your school so don’t wait a week while you figure it out!)

Can you change a shift at your part time job?

At the end of the day how much do you want to work for company X? What is your future worth to you?

It’s tough out there but this is nothing new, companies simply don’t have time and money to waste waiting around to fit in around potential employees. There are plenty of other candidates out there so don’t get left behind in the race!

Amanda Conway, Careers Consultant at The University of Manchester, explores whether practice does make perfect with 3 of the main tests facing Manchester students. When it comes to applying for graduate jobs or internships, the chances are you will face a test or two along the way. Whilst some favourites remain firmly embedded in employers’…

Some degrees are vocational, some are not, but whatever you study there are always more options after Uni than just literally using your degree. You may be a scientist but you don’t have to work in a lab! Let’s face it a degree is a piece of paper that says you studied a subject for…

I wish I had kept a count of the number of times I have been asked how best to get my first job in international development. Unfortunately there isn’t a simple answer. It’s great that so many students want to pursue a career in this sector but it does mean that is becoming increasingly competitive […]

Explore roles and find out what’s right for you Working in the media is a popular career choice for many students and graduates. The most common reason is that they’ve been inspired by something they read, watched on TV or heard on the radio, and would like a creative role such as journalist, television researcher, […]

You may or may not have already seen adverts for, or been told about various Careers Fairs that are taking place over the next two months at the University. For many people the fairs seem to come along quite early in the semester when you aren’t really in the head space to be thinking about…